Irish tourism body seeks €600 m to develop visitor attractions

The Irish tourism industry wants the government to spend €60 million each year for the next decade on developing new visitor attractions in the country.

The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (Itic) wants the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to commit to the capital expenditure boost in next month’s budget.

“The current allocation of only €106 million over a six-year period is wholly inadequate for tourism’s needs,” Itic said.

As part of its pre-budget submission, Itic wants an allocation of €60 million annually for tourism attractions – such as interpretive centres – over the 10-year period of the State’s Capital Plan, which runs from 2019 to 2028.

The group noted that this was just 0.4 per cent of the State’s capital budget.

Itic is also predicting that Brexit will cost the Irish tourism industry €100 million in 2017, due to declining numbers of British visitors and greater price competition from the UK’s industry.

The confederation has also called, once again, for €20 million in the budget for State agencies, Tourism Ireland and Failte Ireland, to restore cuts made to their marketing budgets during the financial crisis.

Maurice Pratt, Itic’s chairman, said tourism has “not got its fair share” of State capital expenditure.

Earlier this year, the group said that tourism, which employs almost 230,000 people, is neglected by policymakers compared to other industries such as agriculture.